Four Years Later Read Online Free PDF Page A

back to the house. I know you thought I was asleep on the couch, but I heard you bang her brains out,” Wade says with a laugh.
    Sneaky, sick fucker
. “You were listening to me bang her?”
    She’d been loud. Lots of
ooh, touch me right there
and
yeah, I like it just like that
. All of it had felt incredibly fake. Like she was putting on a performance and thinking that was what I wanted. I went with it. Encouraged her, even, with all the essential dirty talk she seemed to crave, but I hadn’t been into it. I hadn’t lasted long and when it was over, I kicked her out quick.
    I can’t even remember her name.
    “It couldn’t be avoided. She was a screamer.” Wade nudges Des in the ribs and they break into laughter.
    Bastards
.
    “I get more pussy than the two of you put together,” I say, irritated that I’m making that some sort of claim to fame.
    “Considering Des is gay, that’s not saying much. Ow!” Wade rubs his arm when Des socks him in it.
    Same old shit, different day. Getting drunk and walking home. Name calling. Bragging about pussy.
    I’m getting sick of it. Sick of my life. Sick of
me
. I need a change. I need to leave.
    I’m talking to Fable about it tomorrow.

CHAPTER 3
Owen
    “You know I would love it if you came here, but Drew’s traveling a lot with the team for games and I’ve been going with him,” Fable says, her voice full of regret.
    I clutch my cell phone tight and close my eyes. I’m still in bed. It’s past one o’clock and I have a class at two. I need to get my ass moving. “You travel even with the baby?”
    My niece, Autumn, is their whole world. She’s three and a half months old and the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. She makes these little cooing noises whenever she sees me, which isn’t often enough. She looks just like Fable. Drew loves nothing more than holding his little baby girl in his arms and walking out in public like that. Paparazzi take pictures and they appear on the Internet, making girls swoon.
    Those photos make Fable swoon, too. It’s some crazy shit. Who knew women love a dude holding his baby?
    “
Especially
with the baby. Who knows how long I’ll be able to do this? Autumn will get older and next thing you know, she’ll be in school or whatever and I won’t want to go on the road with her. I’m taking advantage while I can.” Fable grunts a little; I can tell she’s juggling the baby because I hear Autumn’s little whimper. “God, she’s greedy.”
    I don’t even want to imagine what Fable’s doing right now. “I sort of screwed up my meeting with the tutor,” I admit.
    She sighs. “How?”
    I tell her what happened, then finish by letting her know about my meeting with Chelsea tonight. That appeases Fable, but I can hear the weariness in her tone when she tells me not to blow this off and that I need to stick with it. I can’t run away from my problems by coming to live with them and blah, blah, blah.
    Huge mistake, thinking I could call and ask her if she’d let me stay with her for a while. I get off the phone quick and toss it on my bedside table. Close my eyes and let my thoughts drift …
    To the tutor. Chelsea with the big blue eyes and long dark hair. She hates me. And I should hate her. She’s one of those smart rich girls and I’m just one of the local scrubs who got picked up on a scholarship. Yeah, Drew is rich and he’s taken care of us—hell, he’s made more money now that he plays for the NFL than his dad ever did, and I benefit from that—but I can’t forget my roots. Where I came from.
    Mom suddenly hanging around again reminds me of those roots all the time.
    A girl like Chelsea would view being with me as slumming. Get with the rough bad boy and keep me her dirty little secret. And I bet she’s never slummed in her entire life. I probably scare the pants off of her.
    Don’t you want to scare the pants off of her?
    Hell, yeah. Though I shouldn’t. She’s not for me. Not my type.
    My phone buzzes,